Not Her
by SilverSakuraStorm
Summary: She felt like she was in paradise with him, yet his heart belonged to another.


**Not Her

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**

Black hair that hung with almost towards his shoulders, pale olive skin, those dark eyes that is impossible to read, and the way he shook his hair out of his face, one look at him and girls would turn bright red. He was definitely almost every girl's dream boy. And at the moment I was peeking over my astronomy book watching him off in the distance. He was staring off into space, but moments later he quickly turned his head and stared in my direction. Actually, right at me. I ducked my head back towards my book, pretending to concentrate on some random constellation, but I knew he was running up to my spot at the steps of my cabin. Then his voice caught me off guard.

"Hey Andy," he said casually. Casual or not, the sound of his voice made me jolt a little and drop my book.

I tried my best to gain my composure. I picked up my hardback and said as best I could, "H-hey, Nico. What's up?"

Nico, not noticing my shaking hands and the obvious pink tinge on my cheeks as always, said, "Nothing much. Think you're gonna go to the camp sing-along tonight?"

My heart nearly stopped. "I don't know. Maybe. What about you?"

He blew his hair out of his eyes, but it quickly fell back down. "I think I'll pass. Spirit wasn't part of my genetics, unless you count the dead ones."

I laughed hard and loud. The absentminded bouncing of basketballs was just in earshot and I think some fellow campers were staring. So what if Morpheus', god of dreams, daughter was laughing like an Aphrodite or Hermes kid? I had my reasons.

Nico sat down right next to me and I felt my heart jumping. I watched his foot creating a mini-ditch in the dirt. Finally, he broke the awkward silence. "Um, Andy," he said, making my heart flutter at the sound of his nickname for me. "C-can I tell you something?"

My heart could've just skipped a beat, because my mind was racing. I managed to control my blushing and look at Nico, who was looking at his foot digging deeper into that little ditch. "Hm?"

"I-it's…" he stammered.

"Yes?" I said. My curiosity rose and my head was swimming with so many things.

"Um, it's just, um," he was still trying to get a sentence out of him. His hair fell in front of his eyes, but I still could see a slight pink tinge on his cheeks. My mind was racing even faster than centaurs can run. Was he trying to confess?

"Nico di Angelo," I said, savoring his name as I said it. "We've been friends for nearly three years, so tell me right now or I'll make sure you will have nightmares until you tell me."

Nico laughed, making my heart beat faster. "I have to say, even that will leave me scared."

"Well then," I said. "Why don't you tell me."

Back to that small blush and digging the ditch. "Um, I guess you can say…itssisgirl."

I blinked. "What?"

His hands clenched the edge of the step and his blush grew redder. "I kind of met this girl, a daughter of Apollo, and, um, er, wow…I don't know what to say. She was just…wow."

I felt as if Aphrodite decided to rip my dreams, one by one. My world felt bleak and cold even though it was late afternoon in the summer, so the sun was still shining and giving off heat. I looked at Nico to see if he was joking, but he had that faraway look and still was blushing.

"Um," I said, carefully picking my words. "H-how did you meet her?"

Nico looked back down at his foot. "It was a few weeks ago. I just finished sword practice and was leaving the arena when I bumped into her. I guess you could she blew me away."

"I-I see," I said.

Nico traced his fingers along the steps. I followed the pattern he made on it with my eyes. "I-I just asked her to hang out with me."

My world imploded again. "Th-That's great, Nico," I said, the very words hurting me just as I was saying them.

Just then, the conch horn blew in the distance, signaling dinner. Nico got up, his hand briefly brushing arm, sending chills down it. "I'll see you at dinner, Andy," he said. Putting his hands in his pockets, he walked towards the dining pavilion with my eyes hot on his back. Just as his retreating back disappeared, I brushed the place where his hands where, then ran towards dinner, too.

~.~.~

After my cabin threw in our offerings to the gods, I realized I wasn't that hungry. Staring down at my brisket, I stabbed it aimlessly with my fork with a bored expression on my face. The only time I looked up from my stabbing was to catch glances of Nico sitting alone at the Hades table. Though the glances were brief, because Nico would look my way and I would start looking interested in my mutilated barbeque.

Did I mention I had company at my table? Yes, Morpheus had enough time to have some more children than just me. There were Renee, who was older than me by a year and constantly had her head up in the clouds, and little An and Cam, who were fraternal twins who finished each other's sentences. "Cassandra," Renee addressed me in her breezy tone. I jumped at the sound of my full name. "You're not hungry?" She looked at my piece of meat, which I have managed to turn into pile of who-knows-what.

"I-I'm fine, Renee," I said. Just to show her, I cut a piece of my brisket and put in my mouth. I chewed it slowly as if to savor the taste.

"You still don't look okay," Renee frowned. "Bad dreams? If you want I can send-"

"I'm fine, Renee," I said.

Renee still frowned, but Cam spoke next, "Then it has to do with a boy."

"A boy?" Renee said.

An nodded. "Yes, a boy. Cassandra is old enough, you know."

"Did a boy flirt with you?" Cam asked me.

"Or did you flirt with him?" An finished Cam's query for him.

My face wasn't helping me at all. Already I can feel the rush of warmth and redness on my cheeks. "I-It's n-not that! I'm seriously fine!"

"Your face doesn't say so," Cam said snidely.

"Shut up!" I said. My eyes briefly wandered towards Nico's table, hoping he wasn't looking. Thankfully, Nico wasn't looking at me or anybody else at my table. However, he was looking at Cabin 7's table, Apollo's children. Suddenly, it didn't matter if An and Cam were still teasing me. The expression on Nico's face did. Mouth slightly ajar, eyebrows relaxed, and a slight pink on his cheeks. Those were the things I wanted to see on Nico's face when he looked at me, but no, they were reserved for some other girl.

I snapped back to reality and the Morpheus table when Renee spoke, "Andromeda, Cameo, can you please stop making Cassandra uncomfortable?"

An and Cam groaned at the sounds of their real name. "Fine…" they grumbled in unision.

Dinner went on sort of normal, I guess, and Chiron gave the announcements. Then, most of the camp went to the sing-along. I went in the direction of the cabins. "You're not going to the sing-along, Cassandra?" Renee asked. I knew she was only going to make sure An and Cam don't somehow plant nightmares into the camp counselors.

"Er, I think I'm gonna go to bed early," I said.

Renee raised her eyebrows, but she let me go. I rushed back the cabin.

~.~.~

"Hey, Andy," Nico's voice said. It was couple weeks after and I was hiding in the woods, which sounded pretty irresponsible what with the monsters and stuff but I got a sword so I'm okay. I jolted and nearly drew my sword, but my grip loosened when I saw Nico coming up to me.

"Hey, Nico," I said, putting my hands back to my sides and sat down next to a tree. Nico sat across from me, which made my heart flutter. The place we were in was close to the other side of the forest, way far back from where most campers would go. It was our special place, our safe haven. I felt happy here, and happier when Nico was with me here.

Nico ran his hand through his longish hair, which reminded me of the time when we were both 13, before I realized I liked him. We were sitting in this area, and I managed to convince Nico to let me put clips, barrettes, and hair ties in his hair. I remembered braiding a few clumps, sticking colorful barrettes into the hair that fell in his face, and putting the rest into a ponytail. The next day, Nico somehow managed to cut his hair so I couldn't do it again. Yet he grew his hair out again…

"R-Remember the time when you let me play with your hair," I managed to stutter.

Nico groaned. "Of course," he said. "You made me look like an Aphrodite child!"

I giggled. "Then what about when we tried to teach Mrs O'Leary how to raise her right paw whenever she heard the word 'Hades'?"

"Dad made my winter vacation a living nightmare because of that."

"At least Mrs O'Leary forgot how to do it."

"Yeah, that was just pure luck that she did."

Our conversation continued this way, but I saw that Nico was kind of out of it. "Are you okay?" I asked.

Nico blinked, then blushed a little. He looked cute this way. "U-um," he said. "You still remember me telling you about this girl, right?"

At the mention of her, my butterflies in my stomach died a little. "Y-yeah…" I said.

"I hung out with her the other day," Nico said. "I-it felt incredible to be next to her." His face grew redder and he drummed his fingers on the ground. I watched and try to find a rhythm to the drumming. Then I realized I was supposed to respond.

"Oh," I said, trying my best to smile. "What did you do?"

"We went canoeing and then we had a one-on-one basketball match…" Nico trailed off.

"Then what did you do?" I asked.

"Th-then I took to her here," Nico said. "Right where we are."

All that was left of the fluttering butterflies in my stomach then just dropped dead. He took her here? Right to our safe haven, our special place? My body grew numb. "I-I see," I said, the words tumbling out of my mouth.

"I know that we promised to keep this place a secret," Nico said. "But this was close to my heart, so I wanted to share it with her. That's okay with you, right Andy?"

"I-I guess its f-fine," I felt my breathing go heavy.

"I'm going to the campfire with her tonight," Nico said.

"I thought you had no spirit," I said.

"I don't, but I promised her that I'll sit close to her."

My breathing grew a bit heavier. He never promised to sit next to me at the campfire. Sure we'd roast marshmallows together and stuff, but never close with our arms touching and my head against his shoulders. No, never. "S-sure, whatever, Nico," I stammered. "Though I think I'm going to skip out on the campfire. I think I need more practice with my sword." That was half a lie. I didn't need much sword practice. I got plenty of that trying to dodge Cam and An's double threat during morning lessons. The main reason was that I didn't want to see them, side by side with Nico having a special look in his dark eyes and her looking into them.

Nico raised his eyebrows, but shrugged. "Whatever you say, Andy."

~.~.~

Weeks passed, and I somehow managed to avoid Nico all this time. I never talked to him since our time in the forest. I even avoided the beach during the Fourth of July fireworks, just so I could avoid seeing them with their fingers intertwined and so close that his hair tickled her face. Now it was mid-July, and the heat was at its peak. I finished stabbing a dummy, wiped the sweat off of my forehead. I walked out of the arena and saw Nico. My heart still managed to flutter at the sight of him in his aviator's jacket.

"Hey Nico!" I half-shouted. Nico didn't stop and wave, though. He was jogging towards another direction, towards a trio of girls. One girl had short reddish-brown hair and bore the upturned eyebrows of a child of Hermes; another had make-up and fashionable clothing, a daughter of Aphrodite. The third one, however, caught my eye. Even from the distance I was, I saw light blue eyes that looked like the sky on a clear summer day and little past shoulder-length blond hair as bright as sunlight. One look at her and the words _daughter of Apollo_ rang in your head. Suddenly, I realized who she was.

Nico's jog turned into a casual walk and strolled to where the girls were. The Aphrodite and Hermes girl giggled a bit and then turned to leave. I wished they didn't. I saw the blond Apollo girl say something, causing Nico to blush. The Apollo girl smiled, and put her arms around Nico's neck, letting her hands run through his longish hair that was only a few inches short of hers. Nico smiled, and took her face in his hands. Then, right at that moment, I knew what was going to happen next.

"No…" I whispered, but nobody heard me. Nico and her faces were inches apart, and then their lips were centimeters apart, then millimeters.

Then there was no more space between the two.

My world crumbled and I knew there was no hope. As I watched the two sweetly kiss each other, the tears were rushing in my eyes and sobbing noises were escaping my lips. Finally, not able to take in the scene anymore, I ran. Far, far away. Far away from the arena, and far away from Nico.

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**And now I swear I'll never write a story that depressing ever again.**

**Yes, this is the product of being depressed over the fact that my stories aren't that popular compared to some others and listening to Teardrops on My Guitar by Taylor Swift. And I somehow managed to make the story flow a bit better than my other PJO one-shot, plus it's longer. Hopefully you like it and review! They're appreciated very much!**

**Fun Fact: The girl that Nico likes in this story was actually the OC I was pairing with him up until a few days ago (when my depression started and kind of ended). Now I don't have anybody to pair with Nico now, but I'll decide once I get my SC! story off the ground and finished.**


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